3.
Notice how this meshes with the perfect acrostic structure in chapter 1. It is like what anyone would expect in such a situation.
a.
No reversed letters to signify chaos and things not being as should be expected.
b.
It is as though the author is trying to keep himself together by pushing the events away.
c.
It may appear that his rather factual (honest) account in chapter 1 is an indication that he is in denial.
4.
Lamentations 1 provides hints at the reasons for the destruction, but wait until you study the second chapter. It is descriptive of that destruction by way of sharp focusing.
a.
First there is focusing on what the Lord has done: b.
And second there is focusing on what the author has seen.
B.
Chapter 2 - Connecting with Reality.
1.
Chapter 2 changes the situation for the author.
a.
The realization that it was the Lord, Himself, that brought such destruction breaches the walls of the author's defenses, and he is once more in the thick of personal memories.
b.
The first ten verses describe what the Lord has done to the city.
c.
Verse 11 marks the point where we know that the author was there,
“My eyes fail because of tears, and my spirit is greatly troubled; my heart is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.” For the remainder of this chapter, the author is pressed by the memories of what he saw as the city went down.
d.
The first ten verses are very significant.
1)
They ascribe to the Lord all the devastation that has come upon the land. It is the Lord who has “swallowed up,”
“thrown down,” “profaned,” “cut off,” “burned,” “bent His bow,” “destroyed,” “rejected,” “despised,”
“abandoned,” etc.
2)
Verse after verse tells of the terrible wrath from the Lord that has befallen the city and its people.